Going Forward, 100 Years after De Stijl; A Gallery Named Sue, The Hague

Guido Winkler

The centennial of De Stijl has become a victim of marketing in The Hague,

Guido Winkler

Guido Winkler

Guido Winkler

but happily for A Gallery Named Sue it is a good excuse to show some works by present day artists who make non-figurative or non-objective work,

John Tallman

Jan Maarten Voskuil

each finding freedom in his/her own restrictions.

Justin Andrews

Jan Maarten Voskuil

Some work internationally, to globally keep alive the idea of using basic shapes and simple but purposeful colours,

Jan Maarten Voskuil

Hernán Ardila Delgado

Hernán Ardila Delgado

stressing their spiritual rather than their decorative aspect.

Jan Maarten Voskuil

Billy Gruner

It’s a fine show with very different works by artists from Australia (Justin Andrews and Billy Gruner), Colombia (Hernán Ardila Delgado), the Netherlands (Henriëtte van ‘t Hoog, Jan Maarten Voskuil en Guido Winkler) and from the United States (John Tallman).

Henriëtte van ‘t Hoog

John Tallman

All works, as shown in AGNS, generate a kind of intimacy in spite of their sometimes extremely simple design.

John Tallman

Henriëtte van ‘t Hoog

Guido Winkler

In the ‘little project room’ there is also a work by Sarah Keighery, made with pepper.

Sarah Keighery

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

© Villa Next Door 2017

Content of all pictures courtesy to the artists and A Gallery Named Sue, Den Haag

 

Bertus Pieters

Robbie Cornelissen, The New Room; Galerie Maurits van de Laar, The Hague

Robbie Cornelissen (1954) is probably one of the greatest Dutch draughtsmen.

His work is presently on show at Maurits van de Laar gallery.

You could say his practice is a constant dialogue between drawing and space.

Making big drawings has generally been a sort of artistic hype for quite some time, but Cornelissen’s work is quite a different story.

To the viewer it is also a constant challenge in taking a position in front of his drawings.

There are stop-motion videos on show too, in which you can see how Cornelissen is drawing, abstracting, adjusting, erasing, telling a story of space and non-space.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

© Villa Next Door 2017

Content of all pictures courtesy to Robbie Cornelissen and Galerie Maurits van de Laar, Den Haag

 

Bertus Pieters

Taisuke Koyama & Takashi Kawashima, POST BODY / NATURE; LhGWR, The Hague

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

The two Japanese artists Taisuke Koyama (1978) and Takashi Kawashima (1985) have made their own exhibition at LhGWR, without any technical and artistic advice or help from the gallery staff.

Taisuke Koyama

Takashi Kawashima

Takashi Kawashima

Taisuke Koyama

It is also their first exhibition together.

Takashi Kawashima

Takashi Kawashima

Takashi Kawashima

Takashi Kawashima

The strange thing is, when entering the gallery, you might as well think all the works are made by one artist, albeit a very versatile one.

Takashi Kawashima

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

Takashi Kawashima

Taisuke Koyama

But soon you see the differences in character, in interest and in ways of seeing and working.

Takashi Kawashima

Taisuke Koyama

Taisuke Koyama

Taisuke Koyama

The unity is based on the presentation, which may look a bit radical for a photo exhibition, but it is also well staged and balanced.

Taisuke Koyama

Taisuke Koyama

Taisuke Koyama

Taisuke Koyama

The duo now make you take your distance, then make you feel part of the ensemble.

Taisuke Koyama

Taisuke Koyama

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

Takashi Kawashima

There are certainly great differences: Koyama’s work deals with the process of photographic reproduction itself while Kawashima might be called a lyrical photographer, constantly in dialogue with great natural forces.

Takashi Kawashima

Takashi Kawashima

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

The key to the success of this presentation is probably the deep respect they seem to have for each other’s works.

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

Aspects of both artist’s ideas come together in a communally made installation in the gallery’s basement.

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

Manipulation of algorithms seems to have become part of an artificial work which acts like an unpredictable natural situation.

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

But apart from these chic words, it is a show to be seen and to be experienced, so go and have a look for yourself somewhere this summer.

Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

© Villa Next Door 2017

Content of all pictures courtesy to the artists and LhGWR, The Hague

 

Bertus Pieters

Ari Bayuaji, Hide and Seek; Galerie Helder, The Hague

Galerie Helder has moved to showing solo presentations and the present exhibition of works by Ari Bayuaji (1975) is a very subtle one indeed.

Bayuaji links social criticism to lyricism which makes his works objects of reflection.

Bayuaji, who comes from Bali but now lives in Canada, reflects amongst others on censorship, the position of women, remembrance and the history of places one may call either home or an exotic destiny.

With Bayuaji Helder brings a valuable way of seeing to The Hague and very different from what is regularly on show.

Meanwhile Bayuaji also has a presentation in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

© Villa Next Door 2017

Content of all pictures courtesy to Aru Bayuaji and Galerie Helder, Den Haag

 

Bertus Pieters

Michel Hoogervorst, studio visit, The Hague

During his exhibition Guess Things Happen That Way at Galerie Ramakers (click here for some pictures of that show), Michel Hoogervorst (1961) has opened his studio over the weekends. So i visited him last Sunday.

The studio is in one of the many late 19^th century apartments in my own neighbourhood, so it was a visit just round the corner.

Apart from seeing his works in a studio setting, you can also admire a big wall painting which he changes almost completely every week.

Almost, as some details are maintained.

It is like the growing process he often shows in his paintings: there is an end to it and also the wall painting’s last version will disappear.

Happily some accurate photographs of the different versions have been made.

Things happen that way too.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

© Villa Next Door 2017

Content of all pictures courtesy to Michel Hoogervorst

 

Bertus Pieters

Michel Hoogervorst, Guess Things Happen That Way; Galerie Ramakers, The Hague

Some artists need the whole world to give expression to their ideas, others need no more than their daily lives in which flowers in a pot on a shelf and some common words are enough.

Michel Hoogervorst (1961) belongs to the latter.

To quote the title of his present show at Galerie Ramakers, i too guess things just happen that way.

He draws the consequences of his daily existence and that opens a whole world to him and to the viewer.

Measuring from the diversity, quality and quantity of the works on show, which are all recent to very recent, it gives him an almost infinite inspiration.

Such that the exhibition has expanded to his studio where he welcomes visitors in the weekends during the show.

I’ll probably report about that later.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

© Villa Next Door 2017

Content of all photographs courtesy to Michel Hoogervorst and Galerie Ramakers, Den Haag

 

Bertus Pieters

Jacqueline de Jong, Imagination à rebours; Dürst Britt & Mayhew, The Hague

Jacqueline de Jong’s (1939) biography reads like an artistic history of western Europe from the Second World War onwards.

Oddly enough, in the Netherlands she doesn’t have the fame she deserves, for her work as a visual artist, but also as an international key role player, for instance as founder, publisher and editor of The Situationist Times in the 1960s.

She belongs to a generation that shaped modern and postmodern western Europe and played an important role in it, always in favour of crossing borders in artistic expression.

Dürst Britt & Mayhew were happy enough to get in touch with her and finding her more than willing to co-operate in organising a modest but impressive exhibition of her paintings, spanning some five decades.

Here are some impressions of her works presently on show, but i strongly advise you to take your time and have a look yourself.

Dürst Britt & Mayhew, as usual, honour the works in the best way they can, giving the viewer time and space to reflect on what he/she sees.

It is thrilling to see even her most recent works full of painterly energy, often both wildly expressive and meticulously detailed and balanced in one painting, and combining humour and violence.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

© Villa Next Door 2017

Content of all photographs courtesy to Jacqueline de Jong and Dürst Britt & Mayhew, Den Haag.

 

Bertus Pieters

Bram De Jonghe, En dat ook (And that too); 1646, The Hague

I visited Bram De Jonghe’s present show En dat ook (And that too) at 1646 to write a review for Villa La Repubblica. Click here to read the review (in Dutch; with spoiler alert).

I leave you here with just a few details as it is much better to go and see this fine show yourself.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

© Villa Next Door 2017

Content of all photographs courtesy to Bran De Jonghe and 1646, Den Haag

 

Bertus Pieters